On the plus side, the food is great, and the resort is beautiful in terms of the outdoor areas, but the indoor reception rooms are outdated and not special. What sold me on Carnero...s was the outdoor space and the hilltop dining room. The Sonoma and Napa ballrooms are just basically meeting spaces. They charge an arm and a leg to have a wedding there, and promise very high end service, but I was really disappointed and feel that other brides should be aware of some potential issues with Carneros as a wedding venue:
1. You will still pay for your own room at the hotel. They didn't comp my room. Literally everyone else I know had their own room comped when staying at their own wedding venue.
2. They won't give you discounted rooms for your guests. At most, they'll give a few rooms at 5% off (and with rooms starting at around $875-$975/night, your guests will likely choose one of many other Napa resorts to stay in, so it's not ideal that you can't stay with your out of town guests if you stay there).
3. They won't save you a piece of your own wedding cake. Totally bizarre. I didn't even get to taste it and assumed they'd send us home with at least a slice, but nada.
4. They'll dismantle your decor in the middle of the wedding. My table setup, including all decor and flowers I paid thousands for, were broken down with hours left in my reception. I was livid. They didn't even save my flowers for me -- we saw them cutting them into smaller vases to use presumably at the restaurant.
5. They won't serve food during speeches. I don't know why they refused to do this, so once the speeches were over, everyone was looking around like, "Where's the food?" No one could explain why they insisted on this awkward pause instead of quietly sweeping the room to serve the next course while everyone is listening to the speech, so that it's ready to eat without a time lag in between.
6. They order their tables and chairs from an outside vendor, so watch out for limited availability and time. I was told we can't have a sweetheart table indoors at the reception because they only have one and it would be used for the outdoor dinner beforehand. So I had no place for just me and the groom to sit once we moved inside for dancing, so when I came back outside to sit at the sweetheart table maybe 20 minutes later, I found it had already been broken down and removed. a) who breaks down decor in the middle of a wedding?! b) why was it so hard to make sure that the bride has a place to sit at her own wedding?
7. Nobody on staff communicates between departments. When I arrived to check into the hotel, holding my wedding dress, all excited for the weekend, the front desk staff had no idea I was getting married there, didn't even look up, and had be wait about 20 minutes while they helped other people, all of whom were offered champagne, while I was sitting there ignored holding my wedding dress like an idiot.
On my wedding day, when my photographer checked in at the front desk, someone dropped her off at my room and then left, so I had no golf cart to use (as promised) and had to literally walk around on grass and gravel in my wedding heels for an hour taking photos with no help getting around the property.
The event staff are all nice people, but clearly not communicating or don't have the support they need to execute the level of service promised. It sucks that I was disappointed on my wedding day and have to remember that forever.